“It’s always nice to have a couple guys, a change of pace guy,” Pagano said. “But certainly at the end of the year with Donnie hurt and the way Vick came on and the way he was running, he was getting the lion’s share of the snaps. At this point, yeah, he’s sitting there as the lead guy. But Donnie’s in great shape and healthy and looks fantastic to this point in the offseason program.

“Can Vick be an every-down guy? Yeah. Can Donnie be an every-down guy? Yeah.”

New offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton isn’t going to be afraid to run the ball, and Ballard looked like he can handle the load. He started the last 12 games last year, and gained 814 yards on 211 carries, showing he might be the kind of clock-grinder the Colts need to balance out an offense that saw quarterback Andrew Luck take too many hits last year.

“Vick is a solid, solid guy; Donnie is a home run hitter,” Pagano said. “If he gets the edge and hits a crease, he can take it the distance. For Vick, look at that last drive of the regular season against the Texans: We got the ball with 9:46 on the clock, we ran 12 plays, 11 runs, and we ended up taking a knee. Vick took the lion’s share of carries on that drive. He just keeps getting stronger, the more carries he has the better he gets.”

And from the sounds of things, he’s going to continue to get more and more opportunities.

If Vick had started the whole season based on his play just in those 12 games he would have been a 1000 yard rusher. Regardless of that though the modern NFL is a passing league, the run game has become much more insignificant unless your team has a runner like Adrian Peterson or CJ Spiller. Go look at the Super Bowl winning teams of the past decade, most of them don’t have spectacular names starting at RB. Good luck to Vick, he is living his dream and it’s only confirmed by the losers who have no respect for those who work hard to live that dream.

peytonsneck18 says:May 15, 2013 3:55 PM

Get a life imposter peytonsneck up there, vick is great!! Brown is a nice change of pace back, and the 7th rounder we got is like sproles

4ever19 says:May 15, 2013 3:57 PM

VB may not be a Pro Bowl type of guy but he looks like he can get the job done. He can give us more consistency and run tougher between the tackles than little Donnie B ever could.